Upton Sinclair

EXCERPTPolitical sovereignty has been taken out of the possession of private individuals and made the property of the whole community, to be shared in by all on equal terms; but industrial sovereignty is still the property of a few. A man can no longer be put in jail or taxed by a king, but he can be starved and exploited by a master; his body is now his own, but his labor is another's.—The Industrial Republic, 1907

WORKS BURNEDThe Brass Check (Der Sündenlohn) 100%: The Story of a PatriotBoston: A Documentary Novel of the Sacco-Vanzetti TrialJimmie Higgins: A StoryThe Jungle (Der Sumpf)Oil (Petroleum)The Profits of Religion; An Essay in Economic Interpretation (Religion und Profit)Mammonart (Die goldene Kette)

SUMMARYAmerican author Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) is best known for his popular 1906 work The Jungle, a depiction of the corruption, filth, and cruelty he witnessed while undercover in the Chicago meatpacking industry. In this and other "muckraking" works including The Brass Check and King Coal, Sinclair exposed social injustice and economic exploitation. He advocated reform in American society.

In later years, Sinclair would relinquish his socialist views and support the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt; but his prominence as a socialist writer in the 1930s induced the Nazis to include his works in their book burnings.